Book of Common Prayer
14 The second Woe has passed. The third Woe is coming very soon.
The song of triumph
15 The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and loud voices were heard from heaven. “Now the kingdom of the world has passed to our Lord and his Messiah,” said the voices, “and he will reign forever and ever.” 16 The twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones in God’s presence fell on their faces and worshiped God.
17 This is what they said:
“Almighty Lord God, we give you our thanks,
Who Is and Who Was,
because you have taken your power, your great power,
and begun to reign.
18 The nations were raging; your anger came down
and with it the time for judging the dead
to give the reward to your servants the prophets,
the holy ones, too, and the small and the great—
all those who fear your name.
It is time to destroy the destroyers of the earth.”
19 God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared inside his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, thunderclaps, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
27 While he was saying these things, a woman from the crowd raised her voice. “A blessing on the womb that bore you,” she shouted, “and the breasts that you sucked!”
28 “On the contrary,” replied Jesus. “A blessing on those who hear God’s word and keep it!”
The sign of Jonah
29 The crowds kept increasing. Jesus began to say to them, “This generation is an evil generation! It looks for a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.
30 “Jonah was a sign to the people of Nineveh; just so, the son of man will be a sign to this generation. 31 The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and will condemn them: she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and look—something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it: they repented at Jonah’s preaching, and look—something greater than Jonah is here.
33 “Nobody lights a lamp in order to hide it or put it under a jug. They put it on a lampstand, so that people who come in can see the light.
34 “Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is focused, your whole body is full of light. But if it’s evil, your body is in darkness. 35 Watch out, then, in case the light inside you turns to darkness. 36 If your whole body is illuminated, with no part in darkness, everything will be illuminated, just as you are by a flash of lightning.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.